2012
Articles and Interviews

As
a general rule of thumb in the television industry, by the time you’ve
aired the last episode produced of your series, you generally know the
fate of said series. You either know you’ve been canceled and the
series run is done, or you get a half or full-season order and actively
begin work on a new batch of episodes. The decision on which way things
go is generally known prior to the final episode airing or very shortly
thereafter.

Unfortunately, that is the farthest thing from
the case for a series near and dear to the hearts of many Stargate fans
and genre TV watchers in general. More than four months after airing
its last episode, the fate of the Syfy series Sanctuary is still in
limbo, with its creative team and industry analysts alike unsure
whether the series will survive and get a new season — the series’
fifth. While in British Columbia for the final Vancouver version of the
Creation Entertainment Official Stargate Convention, GateWorld flew up
a few days early and took an invite to visit Bridge Studios to sit down
with executive producer Martin Wood and executive producer/series star
Amanda Tapping for an exclusive chat on a variety of topics, including
the series’ long hiatus and its potential fate. The answers we received
— while not the best news we want to hear — are brutally honest, yet
still hopeful.

“Do we see it returning? I’d love to see it
return. It was never an intention to end the show after Season Four,”
Tapping said. “In all honesty, we’re not going to be on TV screens in
the fall. We know that. It’s really just been a logistical [nightmare]
and a heartbreaking, soul crushing play-out of events. But the truth of
the matter is Syfy was not able to make a decision in a timely fashion
as to whether or not we were coming back for the fall. They had their
whole crunch going on with Comcast taking over at NBC. So they weren’t
able to give us a decision.”

The wait for an answer won’t be indefinite, though, as Tapping hinted
as to when a decision either way must come by.

“Our
financers were getting really nervous about whether or not the show was
coming back. And even though Syfy doesn’t have to tell us until July,
telling us in July means the show is not coming back in the fall
because we can’t possibly do it,” Tapping said. “In that time period
where the financers were getting nervous and Syfy wasn’t giving us a
decision, our studio came up for lease. And our studio is very
expensive. They wanted us to sign a year-long lease and pay three
months in advance. And our financers were like “Why would we do that?
We don’t even know if the show’s [returning].” So they released the
studio.

“All of our assets are currently sitting in a
massive storeroom,” Tapping added. “Everything Sanctuary. Except for
our sets which have been sold.”

Tapping: "We're just a couple of producers who just want to make a
show."

Martin
Wood is quick to stress that while the series’ fate continues to remain
unknown, it has nothing to do with Syfy’s overall happiness with the
series and its performance.

“We’re at the point of where art
and business collide,” Wood said. “[We got] a call from the head of the
network, Mark Stern. He called to say ‘I have to admit that Season Four
was your best season ever. It was amazing. We loved what Season Four
was doing.’ But his hands were tied at that point. He couldn’t make a
decision on it. Because he wasn’t available to do that. Or rather, the
decision-making capability wasn’t available to him. I think given their
feelings about the show, they certainly would have brought it back. But
again, that’s the point where art and business collide.”

For Tapping, the wait for an answer about what will happen to the series

she has invested so much time and effort into has been an
emotional-roller coaster.

“You’ve
got Syfy dealing with Comcast, and you’ve got Syfy dealing with our
financers, The Beedie Group, which own the show. And we’re just a
couple of creative producers who just want to make the show,” Tapping
said. “I can’t [talk about it] without sitting here and bawling my eyes
out. It has been the most heart-crushing, soul destroying experience.
Because it’s a really good show and we love it. And we are stuck
between these two really opposing forces.”

For more from the
duo about Sanctuary‘s fate, along with their thoughts on the Stargate
franchise’s dormancy and so much more, make sure you keep your browser
locked to GateWorld. An exclusive full-length audio interview with
Amanda Tapping and Martin Wood is mere days away and not one you’ll
want to miss!

Exclusive:
It has been four months since the conclusion of the fourth season of
Amanda Tapping’s science fiction series Sanctuary on Syfy and still no
decision has been reached on the future of the series.

Back in February, I was told that a decision on
Sanctuary could be connected to what the network decided to do about a
potential Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome series. Since
then, Syfy has passed on picking up Blood & Chrome to series
and, just this past week, we received word from three sources stating
that the series had been cancelled. However, upon contacting
representatives of Syfy, TVWise was informed that was not the case and
that a decision had yet to be reached on whether or not they would
order a fifth season.

What’s the hold up? A source at Syfy told me that
the issue was not on Syfy’s side of things and in fact boils down to
how the series is financed. ”Sanctuary is the only question mark on the
scripted side. We have the figures, the series averaged a 0.4
[live+same day across season 4], advertising wise that’s worth what
it’s worth,” one insider commented, “that and a few other factors will
dictate our licensing fee. But the problem is that there is no studio
support. If this was with UCP [Universal Cable Productions,
NBCUniversal's production company for cable shows], then you would have
heard one way or another, the fact that the show is independently
financed complicates matters.”

Indeed, I am told that with no major studio
backing the series, the producers (notably Amanda Tapping and Damian
Kindler) are forced to negotiate with a variety of investors to raise
enough cash for each new season. According to Syfy that is where the
hold up is: with individual backers of the series. That likely wouldn’t
surprise too many people: getting backers for a series as expensive as
Sanctuary (I’m told the average cost is $2.6 million per episode) in
the middle of a recession is, undoubtedly, not an easy task. Where does
that leave the series? I was told that if a renewal announcement wasn’t
made by July at the latest, then the odds of getting the show back on
on the air for fall 2012 would be slim.

TVWise will continue to monitor the situation
with Sanctuary and we will bring you more as we have it.

Primeval:
New World Earlier in March, production started for the North American
spin-off of Primeval, picked up by the Canadian channel SPACE. (There's
no stateside deal yet.) The series stars Eureka beau Niall Matter; even
better, Andrew-Lee Potts will appear as a recurring guest star in the
13-episode first season, reprising his role as Connor Temple from the
original series. The rest of the cast includes Sara Canning (The
Vampire Diaries), Miranda Frigon (Sanctuary, Heartland), and Geoff
Gustafson (Supernatural, Hot Tub Time Machine). Stargate and Sanctuary
fans will note the presence of Martin Wood as executive producer and
Amanda Tapping and Andy Mikta as directors. One amazing fact about
Primeval: New World: not only is it made in Vancouver—it's actually set
there. Wow.

It’s
good times for Vancouver-produced TV sci-fi as the Space channel has
announced the principal cast for the new series Primeval: New World.

The
show, which started filming this month, is a spin-off of the British
series Primeval, in which present-day humans confront a fracture in
time which allows dinosaurs into our world, and humans into prehistory.

Starring
in the new 13-episode hourlong series are Vancouver actors Sara Canning
(Vampire Diaries) and Niall Matter (Eureka, 90210), in a Vancouver-set
story that will allow for cross-over stories with the still-running
British series.

B.C.’s Omni Film Productions is producing
the new series, which also stars Miranda Frigon, Geoff Gustafson and
Danny Rahim. Also guest-starring is Britain’s Andrew-Lee Potts from the
original series.

(Already in production this year is
Showcase’s Vancouver-set sci-fi series Continuum, which follows a cop
from the future who travels back to the present-day to chase a group of
terrorist fugitives. Something about this city seems to draw
time-travellers.)

Primeval: New World‘s line up of episodic
directors includes Mike Rohl, Andy Mikita, Amanda Tapping and Martin
Wood. Those last two previously collaborated as star and director
respectively on Sanctuary, another B.C.-filmed sci-fi series.

When
I talked to Tapping on another set last month, she said they were still
awaiting word on a green light for a fifth season of Sanctuary, another
show with a time-travel theme. Seems less likely with this latest news,
but we’ll keep you posted.

"There’s nothing hiding around any corner, aliens aren’t going to zap
us out of space," says the Vancouver actor on the set of the indie
rom-com Random Acts of Romance.

"I’m not chasing monsters."

Director Katrin Bowen and her crew have dressed an east Vancouver
office space to serve as the office for Tapping’s banker character
Dianne, a former college prof who lost that job when she had an affair
with a student (co-star Zak Santiago).

Now married, the two are one set of the movie’s several couples in
disarray, in a story that Tapping says is aiming for a darker comedic
edge.

"Dianne is a somewhat uptight, very unhappy woman at the moment," says
Tapping, clad in a banker’s suit as she waits for a lighting setup.
"Her husband’s not motivated, I’m feeling frustrated and we’re not
going anywhere. There’s this incredible chemistry and passion between
the two of them, but this movie finds them at the end of their marriage
and how they stumble through it."

In short, day-to-day troubles far from Tapping’s usual acting work over
the past decade and a half.

Tapping has been one of the city’s most consistently visible players
since 1997, first on the TV series Stargate SG-1 as combat-booted space
jockey Samantha Carter, continuing that role on the spinoff series
Stargate: Atlantis.

For the past four years she’s been the producer-star of the
Gothic-flavoured TV fantasy Sanctuary, as Helen Magnus, an immortal
150-year-old British doctor who guards and does battle with a menagerie
of modern-day mythical creatures.

But before Stargate launched her career in what she calls "the genre,"
Tapping was part of a Toronto sketch comedy group called Random Acts;
so she finds some serendipity in the similar title of her latest movie.

As to the jump from battling aliens to wrestling with the seven-year
itch, Tapping says they both involve being honest in front of the
camera.

"We swear a lot in this movie and that’s something certainly that you
don’t get to do on television," she says. "Otherwise, it’s exactly the
same, you dive into a character and make it real."

Tapping first met director Bowen more than 10 years ago, when Bowen
worked as her stand-in and occasional stunt double on Stargate.

"Working with her on-set years ago, she had the most zany sense of
humour," says Bowen, who remembered those off-camera laughs when she
got into directing. "I’d never really seen Amanda do comedy, but I
asked her and she’s been phenomenal."

Which isn’t to say there aren’t a few jitters for Tapping.

"It’s risky for me because I have a couple of really weird love scenes
and that’s where the comedy comes in," says Tapping. "For me it was
balls-out comedy, let all your inhibitions go. There’s no nudity, I
have that rider . . . But it was really liberating just to do these
crazy scenes."

Doing comedy for the camera is another source of nerves, she says.

"On film, you don’t have the immediate reaction of the audience.
Onstage you know if it’s funny right away," she says. "Here, when we
hear Katrin laughing behind the monitor, we think we’re doing pretty
good."

Tapping is waiting to hear if there will be a fifth season of
Sanctuary, which airs on Canada’s Space channel and in 170 other
countries.

"I’ve had a 15-year run where I haven’t stopped being on people’s TV
screens. Believe me, I count my blessings," she says.

After Sanctuary wrapped last August, she went to Regina to film the
indie sci-fi comedy Space Milkshake with fellow Vancouver actor Kristin
Kreuk. It is due out this year.

"Right now I’m at this really cool crossroads," she says. "I don’t know
what’s ahead. I’d like to do more of these smaller features, but I’m
open to anything."

The Vampire Diaries star Sara Canning has joined Primeval spinoff New
World.

The 13-episode Canadian-UK co-production is currently filming in
Vancouver and will air in late 2012.

The
actress - best known for playing Jenna Sommers on The CW's The Vampire
Diaries - has appeared in episodes of Smallville and Supernatural.
Eureka's Niall Matter will also star in New World as a visionary
inventor. Andrew-Lee Potts, who played Connor in the original UK
series, has been confirmed to appear as a guest star. Miranda Frigon
(Heartland), Geoff Gustafson (Once Upon a Time) and Danny Rahim (Young
James Herriot) make up the remainder of the show's regular cast, while
Stargate's Amanda Tapping will direct.

Primeval: New World
will air on Watch in the UK and Space in Canada. > Primeval
spinoff
'New World' to air on Watch in late 2012.

Tapping is also joined in the indie feature by Katherine Isabelle,
Robert Moloney, Laura Bertram, Zak Santiago, Ted Whittall and Sonja
Bennett.

Tapping plays a teacher supporting a former student (Santiago) and
lover who has never grown up.

Bowen is shooting Random Acts of Romance, her second theatrical feature
after the 2010 film Amazon Falls, in Vancouver through February 17.

She wrote the screepnplay with Jillian Mannion and Kevin McComiskie.
The executive producer credits are shared by Avi Federgreen and Lindsay
Macadam.
Bowen and Darren Reiter of Purple Productions are producing.

Writing for Film & Television grads Kevin McComiskie and
Jillian Mannion will soon have what every hardworking screenwriter
wants – a first feature film credit.

After years of collaborating from their native UK with Vancouver-based
director Katrin Bowen, their screenplay for Random Acts of Romance is
finally seeing the green lights of production. Shooting began yesterday
not far from VFS.

It’s not the first time Bowen has worked with Writing grads on a
feature; her 2010 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) debut,
Amazon Falls, was penned by VFS grad Curry Hitchborn. She and Kevin
also collaborated on the award-winning Port Short called I, Stalker
during his year at VFS.

With their first film featuring award-winning actors Amanda Tapping
(Sanctuary), Zak Santiago (Shooter), and Sonja Bennett (Elegy), Kevin
and Jillian are excited to see their work hit the big screen soon –
especially considering the epic journey they underwent to get to this
point.

It all began when their screenplay was picked up for development in
2007, which brought on a deluge of rewrite notes from various parties.

“Funders, broadcasters, producers, actors…” Everyone had an opinion,
Kevin says. “It’s a hard thing to deal with and get your head around
when you are thrown feet-first into the thick of things as we found
ourselves at this point. Being so far away, we were getting constant
emails with notes about the script from all angles. All of a sudden
this ‘great script’ was now just a ‘good script’ and here we were
presented with 101 people’s opinions on how to make it ‘great again’.”

The project began to grow, attracting financiers and a producer.

“Countless rewrites later, it’s late 2008 and our producer tells us we
are good to go for production in the New Year,” Kevin explains. “It all
starts to seem very real.”

Then the storm clouds gathered. The team lost a chunk of production
financing and an internal contract dispute prevented the film from
moving forward until June 2011. It was during this time that Katrin
unveiled Amazon Falls at TIFF to much acclaim, and that clout helped
bring back the interested parties once she reignited Random Acts of
Romance last year.

Could you tell us what is the film is all about?

Jillian: Random Acts of Romance is a comedy/drama about the transience
of relationships and how couples get together then fall apart. It takes
quite a cynical view of love and infatuation, but also looks at the
comic absurdity in some relationships. Each couple, and each character,
has their own set of problems which damages their love lives.

Kevin: There’s also a lot of humour added to the mix as not to make the
film come across all Blue Valentine. (Great film, just not the
laugh-a-minute I wanted it to be!) The story itself deals with two
couples and three singletons whose lives all intersect as they live up
to the realization that love and happiness is not an easy road. The
film is a cynical take on relationships but it is also very truthful
about the realities of love. We tried hard to move away from the black
and white conventions of the romantic comedy genre and instead spent
time addressing the intriguing “grey area” where the lines are blurred
on what is acceptable and what is normal when it comes to the pursuit
of the opposite sex.

This project has been in the works for a few years now. How has it
developed over that time?

Jillian: It’s come a long way! It started out with all the same
characters that it has now, but the script has been pared down to the
nitty-gritty bones of the story, which is exactly what it needed. In
the beginning there were some scenes and attributes of the characters
that just didn’t work. Notes from the director and producers helped us
to hone in on what the themes of the script were and what the story was
actually trying to say. As writers, sometimes it was hard to receive
notes on things that we didn’t want to change because they were funny
or a good character reveal, but for the sake of the film you have to
let them go. The production of the film has been a waiting game, but
the script is better for it.

Kevin: It’s easy to put all your hopes and dreams into one screenplay
when someone expresses an interest. You have to be realistic and have
to ensure you have many projects on the go because the fact is, not
everything you write will get produced. But finding someone who
believes in your work, that’s the most important part. Because if you
find that person, as we did with Katrin, you soon learn that anything
is possible.

Now that the film is actually in production I can honestly say, despite
all the frustration of the development process, it was actually worth
it. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. As
screenwriters, if Jill and I hadn’t gone through what we did, I don’t
think we would have evolved as writers. Our experience has made us
better writers and more aware of the pitfalls of the industry.
Believing in yourself as a writer is the most important thing you can
carry through the development process. Learn to trust your instincts
and fight for what you think is important.

What are some tips aspiring UK-based screenwriters should know about
the industry as you’ve experienced it these past few years?

Kevin: Move to Canada. Seriously. The open-mindedness of the market is
inspiring. Canada welcomes and rewards creativity. I spent a year in
Vancouver and the amount of opportunities that are available for
Canadian creatives is excellent. Back in the UK, it’s a very insular
industry. From my experience there is a tendency in the UK to reward
the established and the tried-and-tested. There is not so much love for
the new and innovative. It’s frustrating because there are so many
talented writers in the UK, it’s just they don’t have the platform to
have their voices heard.

My advice: find someone who appreciates and gets your work, and
surround yourself with like-minded people. Writing can be a lonely
pursuit and it is difficult to go it alone. I would say to any writer,
persistence is key. If you are jumping through the hoops and nothing is
happening, just go out and do it yourself. Aim big, high, far and wide.
You have nothing to lose.

Jillian: Never give up! When I first started writing an established
screenwriter told me that it was virtually impossible to have a
screenplay made when you’re an unknown writer, but we worked hard to
create a solid script and heard that Katrin was looking for a
low-budget feature so we took the plunge and sent it to her. She called
us at 7am the next morning to say that she loved it. I think it’s key
to know the right person to send the right script to. The other tip I
would give to aspiring writers is to be flexible with your writing –
fight for the things that you think are important to the story, but try
to understand any notes that you receive and make them work if they
have a point.

Amanda Tapping is currently shooting a new feature by indie filmmaker
Katrin Bowen in her home town, Vancouver. Headlining the film Random
Acts of Romance, Amanda plays Dianne, a teacher supporting a former
student and lover (Zak Santiago) who hasn’t grown up.

Random Acts is described as a sexy, hilarious comedy feature about
intense characters in extreme relationship situations. Santiago also
has a history on Stargate, playing Rogelio Duran in the SG-1 two-parter
“Evolution.” More recently, he played Corporal Rivers on Stargate
Universe. Amanda and Zak are joined by Katherine Isabelle (Valencia in
SG-1‘s “Camelot”), Robert Moloney (Atlantis‘s Koracen and SG-1‘s
Borren), Laura Bertram (Andromeda), Ted Whitall, and Sonja Bennett
(Dahlia Radim on Stargate Atlantis). Filming wraps around February 17
and all indications from her Twitter feed is that she is enjoying the
project immensely.

Award-winning filmmaker Katrin Bowen has a new project in the
works--the comedy feature "Random Acts of Romance", currently in
production in Vancouver. Sex, abduction, stalking… and that’s just the
first date! "Random Acts of Romance" is a clever, insightful, and
hilarious fast-paced comedy about modern relationships and the
downright bizarre ways people express love. Principal photography on
this sexy romp (written by Jillian Mannion, Kevin McComiskie &
Katrin Bowen) began at the end of January and wraps at the end of this
week. The film follows David (Robert Moloney -The Odds) and Holly
(Laura Bertram -Andromeda), rich newlyweds who should be in love. When
Holly accidentally runs over Bud (Katherine Isabelle -Endgame), a
pot-smoking lesbian, who questions the couple’s passion for each other,
she realizes that perhaps her marriage isn’t working. Then there's Matt
(Zak Santiago -Amazon Falls, V) and Dianne (Amanda Tapping -Stargate,
Sanctuary), the couple who met in college. Dianne was Matt’s teacher
but it’s not going well now. After a stoned conversation with his best
friend, Bud, Matt goes all out to win back his wife but she’s more
interested in Richard (Ted Whittall -Once Upon A Time), the heartless,
attractive millionaire who lives next door to Bud. Keeping up? In the
meantime, Richard catches the eye of David’s secretary, Lynne (Sonja
Bennett-Young People F**cking), a timid girl who likes to stalk. Yes,
"Random Acts of Romance" will take the audience on a sexual joy ride.

At the helm of this film is visionary director Katrin Bowen. Based out
of Vancouver, Katrin’s first feature film, "Amazon Falls", debuted at
the Toronto International Film Festival (2010) to glowing reviews.
Katrin went on to win

both the Best Debut Feature Award at the Female Eye Film Festival and
the 2011 Artistic Achievement Award from Women in Film. "Amazon Falls"
garnered the 2011 Leo Award for Best Female Performance. Katrin looks
forward to bringing her passion for storytelling to her second feature
"Random Acts of Romance".